The Dickinson press., 1887-12-31
NATURES MARVEL.
MAJESTIC BEAUTY OF THE GRAND
CANYON OF THE COLORADO.

The Landscape Under tho Shadow of tho
A Stupcmdous Seneca Valley G,OOC
Feet Deep.
The whole face of the land now shows
that this region was once the scene of VIC
lent volcanic disturbance. One or more OF
the peaks of tho San Francisco mountains
display extinct ~cratcrs. The ground in places
is covered with scnrir, and the uphcavals
scattered about have that distorted, broken,
uncanny appearance resulting from somc
%convulSion of nature.
With an early start we make good head
way. The road all tile way from town has
been very good for II mountain district, with
only one or two rocky OF steep hills. We
pass Red Buttcs to Our right and stop at Red
Horse Spring. where we water our stock.
This Spring is simply a hole dug in the
ground to catch the oozing or ''secpage' that
flows from the San Francisco mountains. 1t
was not long before the guide pointed to MI
abrupt break i'll the long vista through the
forcst-frcc here us elsewhere from under
brush-and We knew that we were nearing
our goal. In Il few more minutes we drove
absolutely within II few yards of the chasm.
The walls of the canyon were above us. We
jumped from the wagon and scaled the steep
incline leading to it. There was no hint of
the slories that awaited lis.
The scene bursts upon the eye i'll MI its
majestic beauty. The brain reels, the facul-
ties are almost %paralyzed in contemplating
the stupendous depths, the awful cliasns, the
amazing conglomcration of casiellated butte,
mountain, rocky pinnacle-of u thousand
,,tn.t co,,e,, 49,, ,.r-I Ii 81 -. .,-. :-,
1t looks us if the hand of al avcnging God
had swept the region in wrath. 1t is superb,
fearful, fascinating. horriblel The vista ex-
tending for immense distances in every direc-
ton shows the varied, weird, uncanny, beau
tiful forms of peak, cliff, and rocky crag ris-
ing from the depths OF the mighty gorge.
They have a thousand shapes. Some are like
castles, some resemble the ruins of colossal
so as to resemble nothing but their twin
brothers far off i'll the distance. The bril-
liant and varied coioring-vermilion, blue,
gray, brown, yellow, white-of rock and cliff
adds to the s%plendor of the scene. Do we
know how long the canyon is3 How wide it
is! We do not want to knowa Not yet. at
least. Its sublimity %suflices. We havc seen
it before. We must have seen it before. But
NileIc. III our uItttlllS.
A STUPENDOUS SCENE.
But the scene is SO stupendous that we can-
not rely alone upon the eye to take it in. We
must call i'll the aid Of other faculties before
we can even form q faint conception Of the
immensely before lis. Here is n ssermon i'll
stones indeed!
The view before us presents q chasm more
than twelve miles wide, more thar one mile
i'll depth and stretches for miles and miles to
the east and to the west. The wall of the can-
yon does not ut this point go sheer dow to
the bottom, but proceeds to it by n series of
"benches.n Still it descends perpendicularly
Or nearly soto the first bench so many
hundreds of feet that We grow dizzy when VIC
look over md contemplate it. Wccannot sec
the river Immediately below us, partly from
this circumstance, partly because the view is
INSTRUCTED by many gigantic forms Of rock
and earth. Far away to tho east wo catch q
glimpse of IL narrow white thread which We
are told is the river. Through Il powerful
glass We can see it s%eet!iing and boiling ovcl
rapids, and mt times when the breeze die:
away We can hear the roar of the cascade
Tn distance, however, is so enormous that
we can hardly believe the statement of the
guide that the stream is here u large one sew.
cral hundred feet wide.
Nearly opposite where VIC stand, OH tho top
of an isolated butte, whose foundation seems
almost at the bottom of the abyss, is the sand
stone rock known as Heidelberg castle. Miles
away TO the northwest is an immense forma-
tiOn-so distant we cannot determine its com.
position-looking like the ruins of n cathedral.
Scattered throughout the length and breadth
of the gorge as far as tho eye can reach, and
isolated for the most part, are gigantic peaks,
crags and even mesus. Here and there far to
the north we catch gli.npscs of the distant
walls of the canyon ''on the other side"